Tuesday, November 9, 2010

When Adorable is not Enough. Gasp.

So, first, I'm probably getting old. Second, I find myself having less patience with things that I'm not drawn to initially lately. And having a hard time sitting still/concentrating/whatever.

Also, I try and not be that person on the internet who is a jerk just for the fun of it. I rarely leave comments and never in anger. Because that person generally misread the prompt and radiates all this negative energy for no reason. But this post has been rattling around in my head for more than a week and I thought I'd pound it out. It feels important/definitive somehow.

I saw Sufjan Stevens at Kingsbury last week. And I didn't like it. He, as the title mentions, is adorable--charming and with a lovely voice and he was wearing angel wings. He was on the very short list of people I'd like to see perform live. There was too much concept, though, and not enough (for me, last week) heartfelt. Sufjan, dear, don't you just want to croon a little with your back-up orchestra and guitar and make me cry?

This is a thing I know about myself, now: I like concerts where I get to sit down. I prefer acoustic instruments. I want to feel like music is being created as I watch and not pre-prepared to, like, make me think or impress me or whatever. Even this is an illusion on long-touring shows I guess but the feeling that maybe the band wants to be there and maybe is enjoying the stuff they're playing and maybe hasn't spent the last year eating mushrooms with their artist friends is important to me.

This is good for me to write down: I've kind of always been ambivalent about shows (all the cool kids are going!), and maybe this will act as a reminder. Or something.

(Also. In case you want to accuse me of Philistinism: I'm definitely listening, unironically, to Journey as I type this. Right now my little heart is being inspired to not stop believing. :) )